Hello, I’m Nicola from The People Mentor and in today’s podcast, I want to look at why you should empower your employees, how you can do it, and why coaching plays a key part.
Is your mantra ‘If you want something done, do it yourself?’
How often have you asked your partner or children to do something and then moments later you say ‘Actually, just leave it, I’ll do it.’
How does that make them feel and how does it make you feel?
Well, your partner and children might feel relieved to get out of doing whatever you asked them to do, but they also might feel like you think they aren’t capable or that you don’t trust them to do what you’ve asked.
And your insistence on doing every little thing yourself probably means that you are resentful and run ragged every day.
That’s just at home.
Do you find yourself doing exactly the same at work?
Do you say that you want your employees to be able to solve problems and work things out on their own? Do you want them to be independent, confident, and successful?
But do your actions say the exact opposite?
Do you micromanage and insist on handling every little detail?
Do you fail to delegate because you believe nobody can do a better job than you anyway?
Do you spend most of your working day telling people what to do?
Are you more of a babysitter than a boss?
It’s time to empower your employees.
You can’t bemoan the fact that your team members are constantly at your desk asking for help if you’re enabling them to be helpless.
So why should you empower your employees?
If you give your employees more autonomy and responsibility, and you involve them in decision-making and generating ideas, they’ll care more about the business. Empowered and involved employees want to work hard for you because they’ll feel a sense of shared ownership and responsibility when it comes to business goals.
Imagine if your employees needed less supervision, contributed great ideas, and were more productive, engaged, and happy.
All of this becomes possible when you empower them.
Not to mention the effect it will have on your stress levels and the time you have available to grow your business.
So what happens when you don’t empower your employees?
You might be seeing the results of this now.
Employees are disengaged and unhappy.
They are at your desk constantly, asking questions, asking you to make decisions, and wanting to be told what to do.
You have no free time to grow your business because babysitting your team is taking up most of your day.
I’m willing to bet that this is not what you envisaged for your business.
How can you turn it around and empower your employees?
There are lots of ways that you can empower and involve your employees.
Start with delegation.
Learning to delegate successfully is such an important step to take if you want to empower your team members to stand on their own two feet and give yourself some time back.
I cover delegation in my “Managers Academy” membership because I feel that it’s so crucial for employers who want to grow their business to get this right.
Choose what to delegate and who you want to delegate it to. Don’t just delegate the dull things you hate doing, delegate to help your employees develop and grow in confidence.
Set clear expectations about what you expect and when you want it to be done, and set boundaries around the kind of decisions your employees are authorised to make.
Then, it’s time to step back.
Check your employees if they understand what you’re asking them to do by all means, but don’t micromanage. As long as they get the task done to an acceptable standard, it doesn’t matter whether or not they use the same approach that you would.
Check-in and offer support if necessary, but otherwise, let them get on with it. The only way you’ll empower your employees is by letting go of the reins, even if it feels difficult at first.
Finally, give feedback and ask for feedback. Ask your employees how things went and if they felt like they had enough support. Offer constructive feedback on how they completed the task and be specific about what you’d like to see from them in the future.
After mastering delegation, work on involving them more generally.
Include them in decision-making and goal-setting. Listen to their ideas. Take on board their concerns about what’s not working. It’s never a bad thing to be open to new ideas, and as I said earlier, involved employees are empowered and happy employees.
It’s all about the need to feel like they are contributing to something bigger than themselves.
Nobody wants to feel like just another cog in the wheel. People need to know they are making a difference and that they matter. This is why you should communicate your vision to your employees and make them feel invested in doing well for you and the business. The aim is that your goals become their goals.
Another thing you shouldn’t forget to do is something that many employers overlook. thanking people for a job well done. Not only is it the right thing to do and you’ll make them feel valued and appreciated, it’s a kind of positive reinforcement. Showing appreciation for a job well done makes it more likely that the employee will want to continue to do well.
So these are all good tips on how to empower your employees, but if you want to go deeper, you should consider taking a coaching approach.
Coaching is a great tool you can use to empower your employees to be independent and creatively solve problems.
Many employers think they are already coaching their employees, but what this ‘coaching’ often looks like is them solving problems for your team and telling people what to do.
True coaching is about resisting the temptation to tell employees what to do and instead, asking questions and sharing observations that get employees thinking for themselves.
Think about the difference in engagement and confidence in an employee who’s been supported to find solutions to a problem or to come up with their ideas versus someone who’s had you holding their hand the entire time.
As an employer, when an employee comes to you for advice, why not use this as an opportunity to coach and empower them?
Instead of defaulting to giving advice or telling them the answer to what they want to know, ask searching questions. They could be things like ‘Okay, you have this problem. Have you thought about what your options are? What have you already considered?’
This empowers them and it makes life easier for you too.
If employees can learn to think for themselves, it takes some of the weight off your shoulders. If you want to grow your business as well as deal with the day-to-day demands of being an employer, you need a team that feels empowered to just get on with things.
Coaching will unleash the strengths and talents of your team members, and it will also show your people that you believe they are capable which builds trust.
Trust is such an important foundation of a great team and a successful business.
People who feel empowered and trusted are happier, more engaged, and more productive, and they stay.
When people ask you what type of leader you are and what type of leader you want to be, say ‘I want to be a coach.’
Coaching is just one of the ways you can empower your employees.
Are you trying to create your dream team?
What does that look like?
Are they a group of minions who follow your directions and never use their initiative?
Or are they a team of knowledgeable, confident, and engaged people who have the skills and autonomy to solve problems, come up with great ideas, and pull in the same direction to achieve the business goals?
I’m willing to bet that you would say the latter.
You can achieve this with coaching.
Do you want to know more about coaching employees?
How about getting your roadmap to the healthy business growth you dreamed of?
Go to The Manager’s Academy to find out more about The Manager’s Academy membership.
It’s an affordable no fluff membership I’ve created for employers just like you who just want to get unstuck.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this podcast and be sure to tune in next time for the next one in the series.
This is The People Mentor, signing off.
